Anderson woman says neighbor shot horses

Chrystie Read of Anderson moves her horses into a trailer to get them away from her Lullaby Acres farm. Read said she wanted to move the horses for their safety.

Anderson Independent Mail

Chrystie Read of Anderson moves her horses off her Lullaby Acres farm. Read reported to Anderson County Sheriff deputies that a neighbor shot two of her horses Saturday.

Anderson Independent Mail

Chrystie Read of Anderson stands near a stripe of green spray paint at her Lullaby Acres farm. Anderson County sheriff's deputies marked the ground where a shotgun shell was collected as evidence.

Anderson Independent Mail

Chrystie Read of Anderson stands near an electric fence on her Lullaby Acres farm, where Anderson County sheriff's deputies picked up a shotgun shell as evidence.

Anderson Independent Mail

Chrystie Read of Anderson moves her horses off her Lullaby Acres farm. Read reported to Anderson County Sheriff deputies that a neighbor shot two of her horses on Saturday.

Anderson Independent Mail

ANDERSON - Chrystie Read said Wednesday that her neighbor should have been arrested after shooting a shotgun at her son and hitting two of her horses with birdshot.

Read said sheriffs deputies have not taken the Saturday afternoon shooting seriously.

A spokesman for the sheriff's office, Chad McBride, said a deputy who had been off for several days was planning on following up Wednesday night with the neighbor. The neighbor will soon face charges of animal cruelty and possibly other charges as the investigation continues, McBride said.

Read's Lullaby Acres has been cleared of her 10 horses, sent to a friend's farm in Iva.

It is the first time she can remember that she will not have horses outside her home. The horse farm is at 319 Varennes Church Road in Anderson

"I get to come home, no horses, nothing," she said. "I don't know what's going to happen after he gets charged with animal cruelty. Is he going to come back?"

She had to pick 15 small pieces of shot out of two of her horses, she said, after her neighbor shot from about 100 yards at the horses using a .410 shotgun loaded with birdshot.

One horse had pieces of shot stuck on her head and below her neck and the other mare had pieces on her side.

The shot did not penetrate deeply into the thick hide of the registered paint horses, but a piece on one of the horses' foreheads could not be pried free.

An animal control officer with the sheriff's office has taken two shotgun casings from where Read said her neighbor was shooting. She said her neighbor must have taken at least one casing with him when he left.

The neighbor could not be reached for comment.

The shooting began, according to a deputy's report, Saturday as the neighbor was driving a golf cart when he accused Read's 7-year-old son of stealing from another neighbor.

Read said that her son has permission to haul manure to the neighbor's garden. Her son ran away screaming and Read called 911.

The deputy's report says that the neighbor was "extremely intoxicated" and was warned not to drive his golf cart while intoxicated.

Read said that she had previously hired the neighbor for yard work, the last time being two years ago when the two parted ways in anger.

"I haven't talked to him since then," she said.

Read has no-trespassing signs posted all over her property, including one just a few feet from where the shotgun casings were recovered.

Read said that after a deputy spoke to the neighbor about the incident with her son, the neighbor came onto her property.

She was not at home but her 17-year-old son was and he saw a man with a gun huddled in a wooded area next to a barbed wire fence, where the horses normally run.

Her son yelled out to the man, Read said, and the man answered by firing his shotgun in her son's direction. The shot did not hit her son, who hustled his younger brother and the family Rottweiler inside before going across the street to a neighbor's house to call 911.

Read said she doesn't understand why her neighbor has not been arrested.

McBride, the sheriff's office spokesman, said that the investigation is still active and charges are forthcoming.